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A few weeks ago I ordered many skeins of Tammy’s hand painted yarn so I could weave lots of spring and summer weight scarves. Tammy did her usual marvelous job of dyeing a range of fibers to my specs.
I spent a few hours winding 1/2 of the skeins into balls, an essential step so I could prepare warps. Here are the ones I’ve wound so far.
From bottom right, there’s Poinsettia, Magic Kingdom, Cayenne, Berries, and North Shore. There are solids in a few different colors to coordinate with those hand painted variegations. Fibers include 100% bamboo, a bamboo-tencel blend, a bamboo-cotton blend, and an 8/2 tencel.
I didn’t realize till the yarn arrived how much I’d relied on the red end of the spectrum as opposed to my usual blues & purples. I did want to get some more reds after having conversations with two of my customers in December, both of whom were after reds. But I didn’t need to get this much red, I don’t think. C’est la vie. I will remember to weave more blues & purples from my existing stash. I think I have quite a few fall colors left in my completed stock already.
Although I still have this much more yarn to wind into skeins, I can’t wait to get started weaving. I’ll wind more later.
Some weavers wonder why I pay a premium price for hand painted yarn instead of buying only machine-dyed. The answer: I just love them. And so do my customers. I get so many compliments on my colors, from buyers and lookers alike. They draw people into my booth, no matter where I go.
Your turn: in what parts of your life do you choose the high priced spread instead of the generic?
I’ve finished an order that I took in at a show in December. I feel really badly that it took so long. Yes, the customer assured me she wasn’t in a hurry, and yes, I told her I wouldn’t get it done before the end of the year, but February?! How the heck did I make it take this long?
Well, I ordered the yarn in early January, but it was out of stock, not scheduled to arrive till late January. Ok. Then they sent it, and I waited a few days to open the box till I was ready to put it on the loom. Uh oh. Not the right color. I looked at my notes, and I’d put the correct color number in my notes, but it was wrong on the order form. Did I tell the woman the wrong color number, or did she write it down wrong? I don’t know, and it doesn’t really matter. If I hadn’t had an order for it, I would have used the color they sent me, since it was close, but my customer specifically ordered a color, and that’s what I was going to make.
So what was the order? A huck lace shawl in 5/2 natural/eggshell pearl cotton.
I knew that not only would this customer like it, but others would, too. So I warped the loom for three shawls. I wove them, twisted the fringe, wet finished, and pressed all three shawls.
Here’s a closeup of a section of the finished shawl…
…and a section of the draft.
Such an easy threading and treadling! And this all-over huck pattern is nice and soft, even in 5/2 pearl cotton. As always, I made this handwoven lace on my little counterbalance loom. The loom, and these shawls, make me happy. As does the snow that’s softly falling outside my window.
Your turn: what made you smile today?
I’d ordered quite a bit of yarn, some of it for orders I had, some to build my stock for the spring & summer. While I waited for it to arrive, I couldn’t sit idle! I needed to weave with some of my stash.
I decided to use up a bunch of really bright red bamboo I have. But I wanted to tone it down some. So first I paired it with a weft of black bamboo.
I really like how different the two sides of this scarf look. For me, I prefer the dark side, with black predominating; others may prefer the red side. Here’s a close up of the two sides.
It’s a very simple 4 shaft threading & treadling to achieve this look.
The simplicity makes it even more pleasurable – virtually no counting in either threading or treadling!
Anyway, I liked the black & red, and would have woven a second the same, but, of course, I didn’t have enough black yarn. So I decided I’d take the opposite tack. I didn’t have white, but I had quite a bit of pale gray. Figured I’d try that.
Yeah, now I know why I still have that gray yarn — I’m not fond of it. While I prefer the red predominant side on this scarf, it’s far from one of my favorites. I’m betting that it’ll end up being something that I donate for a giveaway. Maybe my customers will fool me — they do that with some regularity.
Anyway, I sure didn’t want to weave the third scarf with gray, so I opted for a rich navy. But I didn’t want to weave the same pattern. I simply changed the tieup & treadling for a whole new scarf.
I must say, that while my little counterbalance loom doesn’t mind weaving lace, it’s not overly fond of tie ups with just one treadle tied to a harness. That treadle slams to the floor every time I step on it, no matter how I tie it. Three harnesses tied to a treadle? No problem? One? We don’t like it. 🙁
Here’s the finished scarf, both in distance…
…and a close up.
Again, the two sides are quite different, although certainly not as dramatically as the first design. This bamboo has a remarkable sheen, making getting these shots a challenge. I think the end results are pretty accurate. The navy & red create quite an iridescence, while neither the black nor gray do. In this case it’s mostly pattern-dependent; those ziggy stripes are close together, not blocks of color like the black & gray.
Your turn: do you have difficulty using up that yarn that only seemed like a good idea at the time?
This morning I thought I was simply going to go to my guild meeting & have lunch with a friend. Little did I know that these simple activities were both going to provide lessons in life’s fragility.
At the meeting we learned that the daughter of a member had just had a personal tragedy, losing her baby at just two weeks before her due date. Sad for the parents, the grandparents, the 3-year-old eager to be big sister.
After the meeting I had lunch with my friend, as planned. We caught up on the many happenings since we’d visited, enjoying each other and good food. Then she told me that the 26-year-old daughter of a mutual friend had died just before Christmas.
I have no idea how a parent ever copes with the loss of a child. I know people have to do it every day of the week, I just can’t imagine how. Regardless of the circumstances, I don’t think there can’t be anything more tragic.
In both these cases, there was no warning, no chronic illness, no idea that death was right around the corner. I don’t know if that makes it better or worse, but it certainly increases the shock of it all. How long does it take your mind to really grasp it? How much longer before you can put one foot in front of the other and move from bedroom to kitchen, kitchen to front door? What kind of colossal effort does it take to buy groceries, bring in the mail, put gas in the car?
I am thankful that I never had to face this personally. I’ve lost people, people I’ve loved deeply and still miss. I am far from coming to terms with the fact that I’ll likely lose more before my own demise. But one’s children? It truly is beyond my comprehension.
I need to go call my kids and tell them that I love them. I just have to stop the tears from running down my face first.
 I’m sorry to say that the state of my Macomber on January 1 is its most frequent state – naked. This is in contrast to my counterbalance loom, which rarely spends more than a few days without a warp on it. Even my rigid heddle gets more use than the Mac.
Why?
I never developed a love for the Mac. I know all about its reputation for quality. I can tell you all about its best features. Yet it still hasn’t entered my heart.
Part of the reason is because I so love my little counterbalance loom. What an incredibly lucky purchase that was — I knew next to nothing about looms and just happened on it.
But that Mac has issues. Maybe because it spent years in pieces in someone’s barn, maybe it simply needs more regular maintenance, or regular weaving, than the counterbalance. Maybe because it didn’t come with a lovely poem taped to it.
I noted in a recent post that I wouldn’t weave cashmere silk on the Mac anymore. I said I tend to make the tension too tight, causing problems.
Well, when I was weaving those towels, I sure wasn’t using a yarn as fine as the cashmere silk! I was using an unmercerized cotton, yarn that could take all the tension I wanted. And I had to use every bit of it that the loom would provide. If I didn’t have that tension as tight as possible, I ended up with at least an inch of threads at each selvedge that simply would not behave. They’d sink into the shed and cause problems with every change of harness. I should have taken a picture of it, but didn’t.
I would think that was my problem, that I hadn’t done a good job of tying on to the front apron, but I never have this problem on my counterbalance, even when I’m working at its full 22″ weaving width. So I don’t think it’s me, I think it’s the Mac. And I sure don’t think it’s inherent in Macs, I think it’s something specific to my Mac.
I started by buying Tom Knisely’s new DVD, the Loom Owner’s Companion. It was touted as providing problem-solving tips. I suppose it does, but not of the type I was seeking. This DVD was more basic & general than I’d hoped for. I’m donating it to my Fiber Arts Guild.
My next step is to go back to every screw & bolt on the loom & tighten it. Since it hadn’t been assembled in so long, maybe everything has loosened up. I’m hoping that will help, because I have an order for a baby blanket that I need to do on it.
If that doesn’t solve the problem, I’m going to get the loom whisperer in. I don’t know his name, and I’ve given him that title myself, but he helped out a friend of mine with her loom, and I’m hoping he can do the same for me.
Actually, I’m really hoping the tightening solves the problem. When I think back to the first few pieces I wove on the loom, I don’t think it had this problem of loose edges. I’ll keep you posted.
Your turn: any ideas what I should try to improve the Mac’s functioning, and hopefully open room in my heart for it?
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